The Winter Olympics Is The Perfect Time And Place For Black Athletes To Protest

Could athletes turn into activists?

Racism is becoming a huge topic at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, in large part because of the uptick in Black athletes participating in the games. Greater diversity and inclusion has unfortunately opened the doors to more racist critics and incidents, including one involving speed skater Shani Davis.

The Opening Ceremony featured several athletes carrying flags for their countries on Friday morning, but noticeably absent was Davis, who was the first Black athlete to win individual gold at a Winter Olympics at the 2006 Turin Games. He boycotted the festivities after saying that Team USA chose women’s luge veteran Erin Hamlin, who is white, as flag-bearer for the ceremony “dishonestly” during a coin toss. A 4-4 tie between Davis and Hamlin led to the coin toss after athletes from the U.S. Olympic Committee’s eight different sports federations casted their votes for the two athletes. A tweet from Davis disclosed his frustration over the situation, but more importantly, he tied the incident to race with the #BlackHistoryMonth2018 hashtag.

It raises an important question: Will the U.S. Black athletes protest at the Winter Olympics?

These incidents will likely only be the beginning as the Olympics get underway. With racism rearing its ugly head once again, there’s a strong case for why prejudice can’t be ignored. And, unfortunately, racism at the Olympics is far from a new thing.

Do you remember when U.S. Olympic gold medalist Tommie Smith raised his Black-gloved fist during the national anthem in the summer games in Mexico City in 1968? Smith, along with John Carlos, became known for their Black Power salute, one of the most powerful sports images of the 20th century.

Smith and Carlos may have paid close attention to the history of Black folks at the Olympics. William DeHart Hubbard, the first African-American to win an Olympic gold medal in the long jump at the Paris Games of 1924, had a record that was only covered by the Black press in the U.S. When Jesse Owens won four golds in track and field in Berlin in 1936, most Southern newspapers wouldn’t even print his picture, The Huffington Post reported. It is those moments of the past that must still weigh on the minds of today’s athletes.

Davis, along with Maame Biney, the first African-American long-track speedskater to represent the U.S., and Jordan Greenway, the Olympics’ first Black hockey player, could choose to stand in solidarity to stop Trump-era racism. There is plenty of inspiration they can take from other athletes’ playbooks, including Colin Kaepernick, LeBron James and WNBA star Maya Moore, who regularly champions for women and criminal justice reform. The Olympic athletes can take a knee, raise a fist or just stand for equality. The whole world is watching.

We’ll have to watch to see what the athletes will do in resistance—and surely, they will have much support if they move forward with protest. Are you down?

13. Akwasi Frimpong, Ghana

14. Audra Segree, Jamaica

Continue reading Meet All The Black People Competing In The 2018 Winter Olympics

Meet All The Black People Competing In The 2018 Winter Olympics

This year's installment of the Winter Olympic Games is the most diverse its ever been, with an increasing number of Black athletes competing for gold medals in sports that are not traditionally associated with people of color.
Not including the 10 American Olympians, there are a handful of other Black competitors from countries that don't have a cold winter season, let alone see a single flake of snow, which makes their qualifications for the Games all the more impressive. By contrast, just 10 Black people competed in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
The opening ceremony is Friday, with the Games being held through February 25 in Pyeongchang County, South Korea.
Black women, who have been busy trying to save America from itself, make up the bulk of Team USA. Will they be able to win in South Korea, too?
Here's a closer look at all of the Black people competing in PyeongChang 2018.
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